Tourist information :

Narbonne, a land full of history ...

The territory of the lower valley of Aude was occupied before the Roman conquest by the Elisyques, people of Iberian origin which main city, established around the hill of Montlaurès, is problaby the origin of the current Narbonne. Indeed it is at 4 km from the primitive oppidum that the Romans, from 120 years before our time, built Narbo, their first colony in Gaul which will become, a century later, the brilliant capital of the vast province of Narbonne.

At the end of the Vth century, Narbonne and its region fell into the hands of the Visigoths and at the beginning of the following century there were of the most northern province of their Kingdom of Spain. Briefly occupied by the Arabs during the VIIIth century, Narbonne was later attached to the Carolingian domain, through local governors, then by a Viscount lineage enjoying considerable autonomy.

During the Middle-Age, Narbonne established itself as both a religious major city and as a dynamic merchant city. At the beginning of the XVIth century, directly linked with the Kingdom of France, it played, against Spain, the part of a stronghold, key and guard of the province of Languedoc. During the XVIIth and XVIIIth century, while it was losing all strategic roles, Narbonne economy hit bottom and the Revolution took away, with the abolition of the archbishopric, its last titles of glory. Simple sub-prefecture, the coty enjoyed, during the XIXth century a sudden economic boom linked to the development of viticulture. After an important slowdown in prosperity during l'Entre-Deux-Guerres, Narbonne has renewed with growth for the last thirty years within the European Union.